Northern Landscapes: the People, the Places
Rugged and beautiful, the hills and valleys of the North help define its character and shape its outlook on the world. Join four great writers for an afternoon of reflection and inspiration in fiction, poetry and social history, combined with short films to form a backdrop to their writing…
Richard Benson
Richard Benson was editor of The Face magazine in its 90s heyday, and born and bred in the Dearne Valley. He goes back to his roots in The Valley, a multi-generational history of family life and love in a South Yorkshire mining community and a Book of the Week on Radio 4. Described in the Observer as ‘a masterpiece of empathy and good writing’.
Will Atkins
Will Atkins’ The Moor is the ultimate guide to the landscape that defines northern Britain, a world shrouded in mists and mythology. Join him on this journey from South to North, cutting across the Pennines en route to Northumberland, uncovering mysterious customs and languages, and evoking the great writers of the past.
Helen Mort
Named after the street in her hometown of Sheffield, Helen Mort’s Division Street bristles with the personal and the political. From the houses, chip shops and pubs of her childhood to the terrible scar of the miner’s strike, Mort has been described by Carol Ann Duffy as “among the brightest stars in the sparkling new constellation of British poets”
Claire Dean
Claire Dean is a writer and performer with a passion for fairy tales, myth and science. Her writing is infused with the folklore of the Lancashire hills and post industrial landscapes, making familiar terrain unsettling and sinister through her brilliant performances. Her work is included in The Best British Short Stories and the forthcoming anthology Thought X.
Screening: Men with Hill (16mm, 2011, North Yorks), a short by Stanley Schtinter and Susu Laroche.
Men with Hill is a surreal psychological journey across one of Yorkshire’s iconic landscapes.
7th – 8th August 2014
Beacons Festival – North Yorkshire